Indian Hex, Wyoming

Our campground last night was in Keyhole State Park, Wyoming, only about 50 miles from the NW South Dakota border. It was located on a huge reservoir that was once Sioux Indian territory but they lost control of these lands when gold was discovered in the nearby famous Black Hills in 1874. When we checked in, it was a lovely sunny day with a nice breeze and we parked right on the water's edge as per the photo. Almost as soon as we found our spot, the wind sprung up and was very brisk. There are no hookups at this park (no electricity, water or sewer) and usually campgrounds are clearly laid out, but here, we were told just to park where we liked. The area we chose was used mainly by day visitors for fishing, swimming and boating, and we were told that overnight campers usually went across the bay to another camping area. We liked where we were, so stayed. By 10pm, the wind had died down and it was quite pleasant, and all the day visitors had gone home. It was a bit eerie as we were totally alone for the first time in our RV travel experience.

We went to bed around 10.30pm (easy when you have no TV to watch and don't want to drain the batteries by having the lights on to read). At 2am we were woken by a loud thunder and lightning storm that became increasingly more intense, and directly above us. There are often lightning strikes in this country, and I had visions of the park staff finding us burnt to a crisp when they opened the park up to day visitors the next morning! Splatters of rain started as the thunderstorm moved away from us and I breathed a sigh of relief. Within 30 mins the storm was back with a vengeance – I couldn’t believe it. I covered my head with a pillow and tried to blank out the flashing bright lights and the cracks of loud reverberating thunder. Phew, it slowly faded into the distance and we got back to sleep again. At 4am something woke me up and I realized it was a howling wind and the RV was being buffeted by strong winds. What was going on? Were the spirits of the ousted Sioux Indians wanting us to leave? Murray got up and lowered the automatic jacks to brace us against the wind. That was very effective in reducing the buffeting, but the noise was very unpleasant. It was a relief to wake up in the morning and find a bright, clear day to greet us. No rain, no wind, just a lovely, summers day! Things always seem worse at night, but it was scary nonetheless.